German Gun Batterys - Calais 1944

[RAFcolumbo]

Does anyone have any information on the location of German Gun Batterys in the Calais area in 1944.

I did have another post regarding the 17cm Kanone 18 shell i aquired with a mounted plaque on it, but i really would like to get to the bottom of where it could have come from, its not the sort of size you could have just popped in a bag and knowbody notice.

I did have some very useful help on my previous thread regarding the piece it was fired from, but i also found out there were a handful or railway mounted guns in this size.

i will post the pics again but any help would be great.

[axtdn]

Hi RAFcolumbo,
see here-A Calais D Day: slaughter of the innocents?
Axis History Forum • View topic - Pas de Calais

[sitges1990]

Very classy piece columbo, I like it.

Jay

[big ned]

Hi,

Following on from my previous posts in the other thread, i have since learned that the 6 17cm L40 railway guns that were operated between the 717 and 718 artillery batteries were actually situated in Belgium during the invasion with 3 at Blankenburghe on charge with 717 and 3 more with 718 at Hayst. This is just over and just under respectively 100kms north east of the 7 guns in the Calais area. It is not possible for these guns to hit Dover from there, and they were only in that area for a short time, unlike the other L40's in France that bombarded Dover several times earlier in the war.

So it's reasonable to sumise that your case came from one of the guns on the French coast.

Regards, Ned.

It is therefore more probabale that your shell case came from one of the guns

[Matt L]

It has a Marine WaA stamp on it- so a KM coastal gun?

[big ned]

It has a Marine WaA stamp on it- so a KM coastal gun?

Hi Matt,

It would do. As i have previously pointed out in the other thread, the L40 17cm gun was originally developed for the German navy in the WW1 'Deutschland' class of dreadnoughts. There were a fair few of these left after the war that were eventually made use of on terra firma, as heavy gun technology for battleships had moved on considerably since the Great War. I am not entirely certain, but i believe that some ended up in the Belgian forces after WW1 as part of war reperations.

The shells available became severely restricted during WW2, and new batches had to be manufactured. Due to the irregular calibre,and extreme cost involved producing them, these shells were only produced in small quantities that, at times left these coastal and railway guns unusable for weeks at a time. This only got worse as the war progressed due to lack of the required materials to produce them.

The guns were built to a marine requirement, and because of this the ammunition was stamped as such.

Regards, Ned.